Adelaide Convention Centre
North Terrace, Adelaide SA
SATURDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER 202610am – 4pm
Doors open from 8:30am
What’s happening
The 5th Annual South Australia ADHD Conference 2026 is set to be an inspiring and transformative event for parents, educators, carers, family members, professionals, and adult ADHDers alike.
This year’s conference will bring together a diverse lineup of leading experts who will share powerful insights into ADHD from multiple perspectives. You’ll gain practical strategies, deeper understanding, and actionable tools to better support individuals with ADHD—whether at home, in the classroom, or in the community.
Engaging, informative, and empowering, this conference is designed to empower you with fresh insights, practical tools and a clearer understanding.
We’re also thrilled to announce that we’ll be returning to the same wonderful venue that made the 2025 conference such a memorable and welcoming experience.
Partners
About the North Queenland ADHD Conference
The Sixth Annual South Australian ADHD Conference is set to be an exceptional and inspiring event.
Following a successful year featuring new speakers and exhibitors, we’re excited to see what the 2026 program will bring.
The Conference will take place on Saturday, 19th September 2026, at the remarkable Adelaide Convention Centre, running from 10:00am to 4:00pm.
Doors open at 8:30am, giving attendees time to register, browse the exhibitor area, grab a drink, and settle comfortably before the first presentation begins.
This event is set to be a highly valuable and informative experience for parents, educators, professionals, family members, friends, and ADHDer’s themselves.
You’ll hear from a diverse lineup of renowned experts, each offering extensive knowledge, meaningful insights, and practical strategies that can be applied at home, in classrooms, or in workplaces. The information you gain may support your child, someone you teach or work with, a friend, or even yourself.
Alongside the speaker sessions, a range of exhibitors will be present, providing additional resources, services, and opportunities to explore.
Designed for anyone with an interest in ADHD, this conference will deliver a variety of topics, tools, and approaches.
All attendees will receive a certificate of attendance, eligible for Professional Development (PD) points, available after the event.
Please Note: Lunch is not included, though the venue offers a selection of eateries. You’re welcome to bring your own packed lunch to avoid queues.
Due to insurance requirements and the nature of the content, children under 14 years old are unable to attend.
During the break times, as well as between 8:30am and 10am before speakers commence, you are invited to look around at the amazing exhibitors.
Ticket Pricing
SUPER EARLY BIRD WORKBOOK TICKET
$117
Entry to all speakers
Certificate of Attendance
Conference program
Access to range of exhibitors
Workbook & Guide INCLUDED
Speaker Lineup
Sandy is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Feeding Therapist with 15 years dietetics experience working in hospitals, community clinics, and private practice. She is passionate about working with individuals and families to develop their personal skills and tools to manage their food-related challenges in a simple, manageable and strengths-focused way.
Sandy believes that your food journey cannot be separated from your life journey and that food encompasses so much more than just nutrition. Sandy is especially passionate about supporting neurodivergent individuals and families, and subscribes to a strengths-based, neuro-affirming model of care. Sandy loves to connect and support ‘orchid people’ – those that need more specific environments and elements of care to thrive and meet their potential – just like an orchid. But aren’t orchids so gorgeous when they bloom?
Kate Donohue is the director of Neurodivergent Education and delivers neurodivergent affirming online courses and group training for neurodivergent people, parents and professionals.
Kate uses her comprehensive understanding of neurodivergence to support the implementation of practical, realistic and actionable evidence-based, neurodivergent affirming practices and perspectives. Kate’s approach to training and development is compassionate, personalised and detailed.
Kate has created a unique braid of knowledge woven of three strands that brings together over 20 year of lived and professional experience including:
lived experience as a neurodivergent person and parent of neurodivergent children,
co-leading intersectional autism research
thousands of hours experience directly supporting autistic & ADHD people and their networks
Callie Elward-Barrett is a neuroinclusion speaker, strategist and founder of Executive Functioning Leadership, where she helps leaders, organisations and communities create environments in which neurodivergent people can genuinely thrive. Her work sits at the intersection of inclusion, leadership, systems design and human capability, with a particular focus on turning awareness into practical action. She additionally co-founded ndWILD, (Weird Intense Loud Different) a non-profit global neuroinclusion movement.
Before founding her business, Callie held senior executive roles in the Australian Public Service, including leadership work in the Department of Health and Aged Care and the Digital Transformation Agency. Her career has included leading large-scale, high-stakes work across public policy, reform, stakeholder engagement, and service delivery, including the Australian Government’s COVID response for First Nations, Disability, and Aged Care environments.
Known for her warmth, honesty and ability to connect the dots between childhood, adulthood, education, and work, Callie brings a perspective that is both strategic and deeply human. She is passionate about helping people move beyond deficit-based narratives and towards approaches that recognise the brilliance, complexity and support needs of neurodivergent minds.
Ashley Cairns is the CEO of A Change for Better (ACFB) and Director of The ACFB Fund, a dual-structured organisation combining clinical services with a charitable model to improve access to mental health and neurodevelopmental diagnostics across New Zealand.
With formal training in psychology and counselling, Ashley has built ACFB into a growing health-tech company focused on addressing critical gaps in ADHD, autism, and mental health assessment pathways. Drawing from both professional expertise and personal lived experience as someone with AuDHD, she has helped lead the development of Lotus, an AI-powered diagnostic platform designed to streamline assessments, enhance clinical reporting, and reduce both cost and wait times for clients.
Ashley’s work sits at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and systems reform. She is actively involved in shaping new models of care, including GP-integrated diagnostic pathways and multidisciplinary service delivery. Through ACFB, she is working toward a future where timely, affordable, and high-quality diagnostic services are accessible at scale.
She has presented at national conferences, including ADHD-focused events across New Zealand, and delivered a TEDx Women talk on the Lotus AI and ACFB build as well as her own diagnostic journey. Her current focus is on scaling ACFB’s services, securing strategic partnerships, and positioning the organisation as a primary referral destination for GPs nationwide.
Tarnya is an AuDHD woman, mother of three neurodivergent children, and the founder and Director of Wildfire Wellbeing. With over 20 years’ experience in dementia care, special education, and behaviour support, Tarnya’s work is rooted in personal and professional insight. In the past five years, she has specialised in neuroaffirming, trauma-informed behaviour support, assisting families, educators, and allied health professionals to move beyond compliance-based methods towards relational, ethical, and sustainable practices.
Tarnya has provided professional learning to schools and community organisations across Australia and has spoken at conferences, including the Support Coordinators Conference in Darwin and the 2025 Brisbane Conference, where she discussed inclusive approaches for non-speaking participants. Her work focuses on behaviour as communication, examining how sensory load, differences in executive functioning, trauma history, and burnout influence behaviour expression and understanding.
Through speaking, consulting, and training, Tarnya helps professionals create environments where neurodivergent children feel safe, understood, and valued—without being forced to fit into compliance-driven systems. Her work also tackles professional burnout, masking, and sustainability, particularly for neurodivergent educators and practitioners.
Agenda coming soon…
Exhibitors
As well as the incredible line-up of speakers. there will also be a large range of exhibitors for you to look around during the breaks and registration period, which will have a fabulous variety of products and services available. Details of Exhibitors coming soon.
During the break times, as well as between 8:30am and 10am before speakers commence, you are invited to look around at the amazing exhibitors.
Become An Exhibitor!
Have something to show? You can apply to become an Exhibitor at our Events and Conferences too!